The discussion of 5-for-5, which is to say, a five-year window in which to play up to five years of sports, has been rampant at the Division III level in recent weeks, especially since Division II went in on the concept which was pioneered at the Division I level. Plus, we get you ready for Week 1 by talking with Mike McElroy and Cooper Drews at Bethel, and Jesse Scott at Wheaton. And we pay a visit to the Helmet Guy.

This edition of the D3football.com Podcast is sponsored by GameStrat, the most reliable & fastest in-game video replay system on the market. Find out more at GameStrat.com.

Division II jumped in quickly on adopting 5-for-5. Can Division III do the same? Should Division III do the same? And is 5-for-5 really what it sounds like? Patrick and Greg dive into the process, the survey of athletic directors and conference commissioners and whether such a concept aligns with the Division III mission and philosophy.

Additional content:

We are also joined by McElroy and Drews, whose No. 2-ranked Bethel Royals have a bunch of attention on them this year. First off, they’re looking for a name for their offense — can it be as good as Top Gun at UW-River Falls last year? The circumstances are pretty different for Bethel in 2026 compared to 2025, as the offense is returning essentially everyone who ran the ball or caught a pass, so the Royals hope to hit the ground running, or passing, when facing D3football.com preseason No. 1 North Central.

Wheaton is hitting the field in Week 1 with a tough game once again, as the Thunder host Mount Union. Jesse Scott tells us how the game came about, what sort of extra lore could be added to the matchup, talks about quarterback Mark Forcucci and how to replace a tough defender in Peter Johanik, who graduated. Also, the Thunder program and alumni had a moment of tragedy this offseason, and Scott talks about the loss of Jalen Shaffer and Philip LoChirco over the summer.

Plus, who are the potential Week 1 upsets? Which conferences might be looking to join the HCAC and OAC and declare some sort of cooperative working agreement?

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation during the season, twice monthly in the offseason, about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

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Photos: Caleb Williams, d3photography.com; Patrick Coleman, D3sports.com; Kodiak Creative

The wait is almost over, and the 2026 Division III football season is kicking off with an absolute bang. On this episode of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast, we are breaking down our newly released Preseason Top 25 poll and looking ahead to a schedule that is already shaping up to be, well, we used the term “gobsmacking.”

This edition of the D3football.com Podcast is sponsored by GameStrat, the most reliable & fastest in-game video replay system on the market. Find out more at GameStrat.com.

For the very first time in the 23-year history of the poll, the season opens with a monumental clash between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country. It’s an unprecedented Week 1 blockbuster that breaks the mold of the usual Mount Union, Whitewater, or Mary Hardin-Baylor early-season math. We dive into what this historic matchup, between North Central and Bethel, means for the landscape of D-III football, how the poll numbers set up the early schedule, and highlight the games you absolutely cannot miss.

Plus, we are bringing you newsmakers directly from the sidelines to get you ready for the fall:

Coach Brad Spencer and senior safety Brayden Garrigan from North Central join us. Spencer chats about the mindset in Naperville heading into 2026, how the coaching staff is managing the continued sky-high expectations, and the benefits of playing Bethel once again. We also get Garrigan’s perspective on his busy offseason and what it actually feels like in the North Central locker room in terms of bringing new starters and freshmen into the mix.

Mary Hardin-Baylor head coach Larry Harmon drops in to discuss how the Cru are hoping to improve on offense in their second year since the return of offensive coordinator Steven Lee. While the quarterback situation is a little up in the air, we hear a little about the position, plus what UMHB needs to do to elevate the offense. We also talk about the Cru’s schedule, especially key games against Endicott and Rowan which are sure to help the NPI of the winner.

Plus we answer mailbag questions about the preseason Top 25, share our sleeper picks for the 2026 season, talk about how we go about making our preseason votes, and give a brief prediction for the game between No. 1 North Central and No. 2 Bethel. And … what of UW-River Falls? The Falcons lost key personnel to graduation, more to the transfer portal, and their head coach and offensive coordinator. We know, not everyone has heard. Patrick and Greg do not agree as to where UW-River Falls should be ranked in the preseason, but we’ll offer hope for where they might find success in 2026.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation during the season, twice monthly in the offseason, about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Photos: Mathieu Starke, d3photography.com; Mary Hardin-Baylor athletics; Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference has made a lot of waves since last we talked, what with Millsaps and then Southwestern electing to rejoin the SCAC starting in 2027. So, at the risk of there perhaps being a third member of the Southern Athletic Association returning to the SCAC before we could get the podcast out, we sat down with Dwayne Hanberry, commissioner of the SCAC, to discuss the changes, the status of Gallaudet in the conference, and more.

This edition of the D3football.com Podcast is sponsored by GameStrat, the most reliable & fastest in-game video replay system on the market. Find out more at GameStrat.com.

In addition to that breaking news, we also discuss the recent announcement that the Monon Bell game will be played at Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana, at a price of $50 a ticket plus Ticketmaster fees. There will be words, for sure. We also talk too early about the preseason Top 25 poll, which should come out within the next week.

Our coach interviews in this edition of the podcast each represent opposite ends of the experience spectrum. That includes Tyler Hopperton, who has been the head coach at Mount St. Joseph going on a decade and has been at MSJ as either a coach or player for half the lifetime of the program. Hopperton talks about his team going to a bowl game last year after a string of three consecutive NCAA playoff trips, the high points in Cincinnati’s Division III program and the benefits of Skyline Chili.

We also have Jacob Donohoe, the new head coach at Nebraska Wesleyan, coming over after spending time as an offensive coordinator at Coe. He takes over a program which was coached by Brian Keller for the past 30 years, was a longtime member of the NAIA and in a whole different conference.  Donohoe talks about reconnecting with alumni, changing the terminology within the program, what he learned at Coe and more, including the famous Runza sandwich.

Plus we answer mailbag questions about the future of Trinity (Texas), and about the best quarterback performances we’ve seen in covering Division III.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation during the season, twice monthly in the offseason, about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Photos: Nebraska Wesleyan athletics; Eduardo Moll, Southwestern Athletics; Millsaps athletics; Mount St. Joseph athletics

We’re just 72 days away from the start of the Division III football season, and in that time, there’s a bunch of work to get done, including getting ready for the D3football.com preseason Top 25. We’re hungry for football to get started! And we’re getting you there with a couple of great conversations with coaches and Division III schools putting in that offseason work.

That includes at Ohio Northern, which was stung at the last second in the NPI calculation and just missed the NCAA playoffs. Then the Polar Bears were stung at the last second in their bowl game, as Wabash scored at the end of the game, plus connected on a two-point conversion to get the win.

That’s a lot of stinging, but the Polar Bears have worked away from that, including going as far as Ireland to find a summer opponent and get themselves ready for the 2026 Division III football season. ONU coach Andy Fries talks with us about that trip, the beautiful Cliffs of Moher which you see on the podcast thumbnail image, breaking in a new quarterback and so much more in our conversation in Podcast 410.

Patrick Coleman also dropped by his alma mater, Catholic U., to chat with the Cardinals’ new coach, Kory David. Of course, things look a little different around CUA these days, and the new coach is a longtime defensive coach who played and coached at Cortland, while also driving defenses at Hobart, Muhlenberg and Eastern. In addition to answering the long-debated question of Wawa vs. Sheetz, David also talks about his two young coordinators, who he hired away from Mike Sirianni at Washington & Jefferson, as well as recruiting the northeast corridor, bringing a startup mentality to a CUA program which was 3-7 last year, and much more.

Plus we answer mailbag questions about Rowan and Hardin-Simmons, and discuss the latest coaching change at Hilbert.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation during the season, twice monthly in the offseason, about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Photos: Mike Atherton, d3photography.com; Ohio Northern Athletics; Rowan athletics; Patrick Coleman, D3sports.com

It’s been a big year for the Denison Big Red, and although that hasn’t completely trickled down to the Denison football team, we thought we’d check in with coach Jack Hatem. The North Coast Athletic Conference has definitely been in transition of late, with John Carroll joining the league in all sports, and WashU in football specifically, and Denison lost its rising junior quarterback, Tyler Green who elected to transfer.

More about that in a moment.

Hatem talks about how his team has to raise the level of its game to compete in a much stronger conference, what the quarterback situation will look like at Denison, what he’s learned from the national championship coaches at his school, why he stays in the game and why he loves recruiting when, in fact, he is pretty near retirement age. Plus, his taste in music.

There’s also been a bunch of change at Susquehanna, where new coach Chris Pincince is a Division III head football coach for the first time, and is coaching in D-III for the first time in nearly a quarter-century. It’s a good thing he and former coach Tom Perkovich are old friends, because Pincince talks about the hole they were left, with eight players having transferred out and so far, the transfer portal only having brought one person in. But a number of assistant coaches stayed to help the program have continuity, giving Pincince a leg up on the D-III learning curve, and Region 2 Defensive Player of the Year Galen Limantour is back as well, which is a huge boost for Susquehanna.

About Tyler Green — his transfer to John Carroll means Denison will still have to face him in conference the next two years, and JCU was in sore need of a quarterback for 2026. We’ll talk about that, plus answer your mailbag questions.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Photos: Denison athletics photos by Jace Delgado, Susquehanna athletics photo by Kim Howes

The mailbag is pretty active in this podcast, with listeners chiming in with questions about how Concordia (Wis.) will do in transitioning from the NACC to the CCIW, whether this year’s new technology in Division III will be added more smoothly than last year, what Trinity (Texas) was leaving behind in leaving its long-time conference home, and which mascot matchup would be our favorite. We’ll also talk about the new quarterback transferring into UW-Oshkosh, and finally get Coe and UW-Oshkosh schedules finalized.

Plus, we have two guests: Trinity (Conn.) head coach Jeff Devanney and Ithaca coach Brandon Maguire. At Trinity, the day we’ve all been waiting for is arriving, where the NESCAC is finally allowed to go to the playoffs. The Bantams are all smiles. If you missed it, the conference presidents have been holding NESCAC football teams back for about 30 years while all other sports have been permitted to play on past Week 11. Devanney talks about how that changes the recruiting pitch, both for incoming student-athletes and a handful of key players who have an extra year of eligibility to be used.

At Ithaca, Maguire gets promoted from within and talks about how many of the 96 players on the roster they managed to get to stick around after the previous coach left right before Christmas. Why did they players who stayed, stay? What does Ithaca need to get back to the very top of the Liberty League standings and get to the playoffs? What are the Bomber alumni most concerned about? That and more in this conversation.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

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Photos: Trinity (Conn.) athletics photo by Isabella Calagna; Ithaca athletics photo; North Central athletics photo by Mark Black; 

The biggest news for Division III football coming out of the NFL draft was, as usual, not about a player getting drafted. We are accustomed to that by now, sadly, and no amount of tweeting is going to convince the NFL to draft D-III players.

But for Tyren Montgomery, the contract offer came. And for four additional players so far, the rookie minicamp invite arrived. And on this podcast, we talk to Montgomery, the former John Carroll wide receiver, now a member of the Tennessee Titans, about his route to the NFL. If you read our feature on Montgomery last September, you already know the back story. He talks about what he’s been working on since the season ended, how many calls his agent got on his behalf, what he likes about the Titans and why he chose them out of the number of offers he received.

We also chat with Bethany coach David Blake, who joins the Bison this year and brings a number of new ideas to the sideline after a wide variety of past experiences, including flying jets in the Navy and then working for the Judge Advocate General’s office. How that experience plays out as a first-time head coach is really fascinating, and is worth a listen. This includes some interesting uses of music during practice and workouts, and a really unique title for one of his assistant coaches.

Other topics of discussion include, of course, the demise of Anna Maria College and the Anna Maria football program, the future arrival of St. Anselm from NCAA Division II, the St. Francis schedule, the new WIAC commissioner and the intriguing Week 1 matchup between UW-River Falls and Southern Virginia.

In addition, we take your questions on the following topics: What is our opinion on D-III schools scheduling teams? Who has set themselves up for a playoff bid? And how many games and teams are we able to watch per week?

Links: Tyren Montgomery feature, September 2025, Trading in his high tops

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Photos: John Carroll athletics; Bethany athletics; Saint Anselm athletics

The NFL Draft is coming up this week, and Division III has had only three players drafted since 2012, all of them offensive linemen who were thought of quite highly and drafted quite highly: Ali Marpet of Hobart, Ben Bartch of St. John’s and Quinn Meinerz of UW-Whitewater. If Division III has a player drafted from any position other than O-line, it’s probably most likely to be Ty Montgomery of John Carroll, who we talked about back in Podcast 404.

Why has it been so hard for D-III guys to get drafted lately? We bring in a player agent to talk about what he’s seen in two decades of representing Division III football talent, what NFL teams are looking for and what the prerequisite is before one ever even gets to a Pro Day. John Perez, who played D-III ball at William Paterson, talks us through it.

It’s a new day at Loras, as the Duhawks have a new head coach in former St. John’s defensive coordinator Brandon Novak, are hoping to generate some buzz of their own in Dubuque, Iowa, and looking to take a step forward for a program which hasn’t won more than five games in a season since 2008. Novak has filled his key assistant coaching slots with some young guys, he inherits a non-conference schedule already laid out for him, and he has to adjust from wearing red for more than a quarter-century to purple.

We also talk with Mike Phelan, whose first year as head coach at Franklin & Marshall was incredibly successful, as the Diplomats won their rivalry game and won the Centennial Conference’s automatic bid. He talks about NFL hopeful Gary Lewis, a wide receiver for F&M last year, plus Phelan talks about who his mentors are as a coach and who he gets advice from when needed.

In addition, we take your questions on the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference managing to snag an automatic bid, and on Anna Maria College getting essentially a vote of no-confidence from the state of Massachusetts. Where might podcast co-host Patrick Coleman end up going for a game in Week 1 of this season? We discuss the story of Ithaca’s Derek Slywka and his pro football journey. And Patrick and fellow co-host Greg Thomas have some news about the immediate future of this podcast.

Our guests on this podcast: Loras coach Brandon Novak, Franklin & Marshall coach Mike Phelan, John Perez of Perez Sports Associates.

Links: A look at the old Loras Fieldhouse, from 2018 on D3hoops.com

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Photos: Loras athletics; Franklin & Marshall athletics

The Coaching Carousel took many spins since we dropped our previous podcast, and it’s time we caught up with those movements and get someone on the podcast! That honor goes to Michael Zweifel at UW-La Crosse, who replaces Matt Janus after Janus’s move to Division II. Zweifel was one of two finalists who were UW-L coordinators, but he says there was no feats of strength competition with fellow Eagles staffer Tarek Yaeggi, who is a La Crosse alumnus and remains offensive coordinator.

Key topics of conversation: Will Zweifel continue to call the defense? And how did the all-time record-holding wide receiver in NCAA Division III history make that transition from offense to defense in the first place? As a guy who grew up around the UW-Whitewater Warhawks program, where his dad was an assistant coach, who were his favorite Warhawks? What changes does Zweifel have in mind for the La Crosse program?

WashU didn’t change coaches, but the football program is changing conferences this season, and that means going from the CCIW, where North Central and Wheaton stood between the Bears and the playoffs, to the North Coast Athletic Conference, where the list of teams at the top is even longer: John Carroll, DePauw, Wabash, now WashU. Bears coach Aaron Keen talks about what kind of offseason preparation they are doing to get ready for nine new opponents this fall, the long career of former head coach Larry Kindbom, who coached Keen as a player and remained on as a full-time assistant coach up until retiring at the age of 72.

We also finish our mini-tour of Division III football programs in Southern California which are being revived as we chat with Azusa Pacific football coach AJ Parnell. Parnell is a former Bethel quarterback and assistant coach who returned to the west coast to bring this football program back, after it had been dormant since 2020, and to bring some Division III experience to an athletic department which could use it, as the school reclassifies from NCAA Division II to Division III.

Our guests on this podcast: UW-La Crosse coach Michael Zweifel, WashU coach Aaron Keen and Azusa Pacific coach AJ Parnell.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

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Photos: UW-La Crosse athletics; Azusa Pacific University; WashU athletics photo by Micah H Manuel

The UW-River Falls postseason media campaign continued through the end of January, all the way through a parade through town and yes, one last interview with the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast about the 2025 season.

Our guests on this podcast: UW-River Falls coach Matt Walker, John Carroll coach Brian Polian, and Whittier coach Cory White. It’s the first episode of our 20th season, here on the longest running Division III football podcast.

Is the next Falcons’ quarterback on campus already, or is there a chance for a transfer for the fall? What did it feel like to lose some key players shortly after the championship into the portal? Which does Walker have more of, beers or championship hats? Those hard-hitting questions and more in this conversation with Matt Walker.

Polian is brand-new to the job, but not new to college football head coaching, as the athletic director at John Carroll and the former head coach at Nevada. First off, we have to get his take on Ty Montgomery, who had a huge week in front of pro scouts at the Senior Bowl at the end of January, and we’ll also hear how Polian plans to juggle both the head coaching and athletic director job, whose idea it was for him to apply in the first place, and what he told people who had interviewed for the role when he told them he was taking the job himself.

Cory White is the new head coach at Whittier. It’s a new day at Whittier, which is returning to the field after three years off. White says he would not have taken the job as the head coach of the Poets if not for assurances from the administration that they would do things better this time around. Hear about how many players the Poets have already (it’s a big number) and where they expect to be in the fall, all with the team going through a strength and conditioning practice in the background on a beautiful January day in Southern California.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Photos: D3sports.com; Berry sports information; UW-River Falls athletics